Apreston1

Hugh Gavin

Both his date of birth and games played were taken from The AFL Tables, an independent site by some statistician but one that we haven't encountered problems with before in regard to accuracy. The Encyclopedia of AFL Footballers, our bible of information on all men to have played at VFL/AFL level repeats that claim of 112 games as does the AFL's online database which I assume is taken from official AFL records.

I agree completely about the discrepancy over his COTC win, it would have been quite a feat to win the award when he wasn't even in the state! When you raised the issue a fortnight ago I brought it up at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject AFL. To quote the only person to respond so far -

"I think we either need someone to go to a library or wait until the NLA Newspaper Digitisation] program goes back that far. Currently the automated OCR is extremely poor, so doing text searches is painful, but I think it will get better."

That seems like the best option. We have had problems in the past with accuracy over COTC. The only way to know truly who won it would be to look at such a primary source. It seems pretty clear that Gavin instead won it in 1902 but that then raises the question of who did win it in 1903. As I mentioned at WikiProject AFL, although it is purely speculation, I'd suggest that Ted Rowell (elsewhere named as the 1902 winner), perhaps instead won it in 1903.

Cheers

Crickettragic (talk) 10:29, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. DOB is also listed on the official AFL website so it authenticity is sound. Hugh Gavin's grandson has his scrapbook so I will follow up whether it has any articles on his award.

--Apreston1 (talk) 10:59, 25 August 2008 (UTC)